1953 Chevy Suburban - Had To Have It

I guess there are certain things in life we just have to have when we see them, no matter how old we are. This impulse goes back to our childhoods and apparently stays with us our whole life, we just learn to control it better as we get older-or do we?

1/9

Kenny and Natalie Mutert were at the Columbus Goodguys show this past summer and Natalie saw a bare metal '47-53 Chevy Suburban that she fell in love with, and it just so happened to have a for sale sign on it. They made plans to come back to its spot later and try and find the owner, but as things go in Columbus with over 6,000 vehicles floating around, they failed to locate the owner as well as the 'Burb the rest of the weekend!

The couple left Columbus Sunday afternoon and headed back to Missouri empty handed. Daily for the next week, Natalie would send Kenny a picture of the Chevy to his phone in hopes of being the squeaky wheel. The grease finally came when Kenny found Larry Easterday, the elusive owner of what turned out to be a '53 GMC with a Chevy frontend. A deal was made and the carryall found a new home.

2/9

Kenny has been building hot rods for a few years now and started going over the GMC and redoing a few things like the airbags and painting the steel wheels heavy red metalflake to match the attention-grabbing red Zodiac metalflake vinyl interior. The '53 had actually passed through several owners over the years as it sat with each making small refinements. The chassis was set up long before Natalie got it. There's a TCI Mustang II crossmember up front that was raised into the framerails so the truck would sit lower than normal. A No Limit Engineering Fatbar four link was also installed in the rear and helps to hold a Camaro 10-bolt in place as well as a couple of airbags. Kenny also replaced the exhaust and the fuel cell that was just sitting in the back cargo area with an early Mustang tank that he mounted under the body.

After having a few classic trucks before the carryall came along, the Mutert's three kids love to buckle in and go just about anywhere in the '53. They do so with pleasure, but they never leave home without plenty of Scotch-Brite pads and a can of WD-40 in case it rains. They know just how many people touch the truck to see if it's really bare metal because their fingerprints show up eventually. It's a good thing Natalie isn't a cop or you'd be busted!